FRÄNKISCHE Industrial Pipes (FIP) is a German manufacturer of systems for fluid and air routing, cable protection and thermal management. Its products are used in passenger and commercial vehicles, trains and industrial equipment – from brake and fuel systems to cable harness protection.
The company employs more than 3,500 people across seven manufacturing plants in Europe, Asia, Africa and Central America.
Continuous improvement has always been part of FIP’s culture. As the volume of CI activities outgrew the capabilities of its existing solution, the company began looking for a platform capable of managing the entire process in a structured way across all plants.
Starting Point
FIP managed CI activities in three separate Excel databases, with each activity type maintained independently. While this approach worked at lower volumes, it became increasingly difficult to manage once a single plant exceeded fifty submissions per month. Approval processes could not be tracked centrally and data across different activity types was difficult to compare. FIP started looking for a solution that would bring the entire workflow together in one place.
Objectives
Before implementing a unified solution, FIP defined several key objectives:
- maximize employee participation in continuous improvement
- achieve annual cost savings targets
- increase the number of submitted activities per employee
Solution
FIP was looking for a platform capable of managing more than traditional improvement suggestions – without forcing all plants into the same process. Today, five different activity types are managed in eKaizen:
- Improvement Suggestions / Ideas submitted by employees across all levels of the organization
- Find a Problem / Reporting errors in documentation and processes
- A3 Projects / Structured improvement projects with defined phases
- Workshops / Tracked and evaluated team improvement activities
- Near Misses / Safety observations captured before they become incidents
Each activity type has its own workflow and approval process tailored to local plant requirements. At the same time, the group maintains a unified reporting structure across all locations. This combination of flexibility and standardization convinced FIP to deploy the platform globally across all seven plants. Employees can submit activities from a computer, mobile phone or shop floor kiosk.
Adoption
The rollout was supported by an internal communication campaign. FIP Okříšky worked closely with its PR department and introduced a continuous improvement mascot – a chameleon named Ferda. Posters featuring QR codes were displayed throughout the facility. For production employees without regular computer access, two self-service kiosks were installed directly on the shop floor. Employees accustomed to paper forms received individual training.
The initiative is fully supported by top management and open to all employees. Anyone can submit an activity, while project leaders are required to complete KAIZEN Basic training.
What Changed in Everyday Work
- All CI data is managed in one place – improvement suggestions, A3 projects, near misses and documentation issues.
- Employees can see in real time where their ideas are in the approval process.
- The Business Intelligence module provides KPI dashboards and benchmarking across plants – giving management a consolidated view without manual data collection.
In the customer's words 
Josef Krizan
“Without eKaizen, our daily work would be slow and inefficient. Today, we have instant access to live CI KPIs and the entire process is fully transparent. Integrating the system with improvement reward payments has also proved to be a great step – the reward process is now fast, fair and clear for employees.”
